/*

Given 2 strings, a and b, return the number of the positions where they contain the same length 2 substring. So "xxcaazz" and "xxbaaz" yields 3, since the "xx", "aa", and "az" substrings appear in the same place in both strings.

eg:

stringMatch("xxcaazz", "xxbaaz") → 3

stringMatch("abc", "abc") → 2

stringMatch("abc", "axc") → 0

*/

public int stringMatch(String a, String b) {

/*

int count = 0;

int length;

if(a.length() > b.length()) length = b.length();

else length = a.length();

for(int i=0; i<length-1; i++){

if(a.substring(i,i+2).equals(b.substring(i,i+2))){

count += 1;

}

}

return count;

*/

int len = Math.min(a.length(), b.length());

int count = 0;

for (int i=0; i<len-1; i++){

if(a.substring(i,i+2).equals(b.substring(i,i+2))){

count += 1;

}

}

return count;

}